Thermal comfort sensing device

ABSTRACT

A temperature comfort sensing device is disclosed which comprises a single diaphragm having a thin film heater and a temperature sensor. A plurality of thermocouples, a room temperature sensor and a black body are formed over the single diaphragm. The thin film heater corresponds to an internal heat exchanging mechanism of a human being, and the thermocouples serve to sense skin temperature condition.

This is a division of application Ser. No. 08/063,784, filed May 19, 1993, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,374,123.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to sensors applicable for an air conditioning apparatus such as a cooler or heater and, more particularly to a temperature comfort sensing device suitable for obtaining a comfortable air condition by detecting a temperature sensitivity that a typical human being feels on the average.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Generally, a comfortable air condition is dependent upon factors such as air temperature, humidity, radiation rate, air flow, dust (a contamination level), smell, and cleanliness.

For obtaining the comfortable air condition, it is, therefore, necessary to develop sensors capable of detecting human conditions and environments surrounding human beings, and to develop operating mechanisms for carrying out control methods for processing signals from the sensors and achieving various operations.

Recently, an attempt for obtaining a comfortable air condition has been made in air conditioning appliances, in particular, air conditioners, using a predicted mean vote (PMV) value analogized by virtue of the development of neural networks and fuzzy controls, instead of conventional simple temperature controls.

A PMV value quantitatively expresses as a scale of language the sense of temperature that a person feels and is represented as a function of temperature, radiation rate (wall temperature), humidity, air flow, dress amount and, metabolic rate.

Table 1 shows examples of PMV values. As apparent from Table 1, human beings feel comfortable at a PMV value range of -0.5 to +0.5.

                  TABLE 1                                                          ______________________________________                                         PMV = f (temperature, radiation rate, humidity, air flow,                      dress amount, metabolic rate)                                                  Value of PMV     Temperature Sensation                                         ______________________________________                                         +1               Cold                                                          +2               Cool                                                          +1               Slightly cool                                                 0                Neutral                                                       -1               Slightly warm                                                 -2               Warm                                                          -3               Hot                                                           ______________________________________                                    

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a temperature control running process of an air conditioner performed by a conventional neural network.

Referring to FIG. 1, PMV variables are deduced from the simulation of an air conditioning environment by measuring basic physical amounts such as intake temperature, variation in intake temperature, ambient temperature, amount of wind, predetermined temperature and direction of wind and inferring dress amount, and metabolic rate. There are a number of difficulties in deducing the PMV variables because it is complicated to interpret the flow of a fluid (an air) and the temperature of an air conditioning environment and because tests for many cases are required.

Also, needed are various sensors such as temperature sensors to measure intake temperature, exhaust temperature and ambient temperature, current sensors to get exhaust amount, and hall devices to sense RPH of a motor because much information is demanded for the temperature control by the neural network.

In addition, because the PMV values are indirectly calculated in spite of using so many sensors, a quantity of simulation programs are needed, and an error rate is high in an arithmetic operation based on PMV calculation. There may, for example, be a defect to show many deviations, in that an inference of the radiation rate is based on ambiguous data so that it may vary depending on the assumption about or the state of positioning an air conditioner.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the invention to provide a temperature comfort sensing device capable of directly detecting a room environment in-situ and calculating a correct PMV value to obtain a comfort air conditioning, and a method for manufacturing the same.

It is another object of the invention to provide a temperature comfort sensing device that is inexpensive and is produced at a high production rate, and a method for manufacturing the same.

In accordance with the present invention, these object can be accomplished by providing a temperature comfort sensing device comprising: a lower diaphragm having a recessed structure at a central portion of its lower surface, said lower diaphragm also including a thin film heater for generating a heat, depending on a room temperature, and a temperature sensor for controlling a temperature of said thin film heater; and an upper diaphragm having a recessed structure at a central portion of its lower surface, said upper diaphragm also including a plurality of thermocouples for generating an electromotive force, depending on said heat generated from the thin film heater.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objects and aspects of the invention will become apparent from the following description of embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an air conditioner control learning procedure carried out by a neural network in a conventional air conditioner;

FIG. 2 is a graph illustrating the interrelation between a temperature and a comfort sense depending on an average skin temperature under cooling;

FIG. 3 is a graph illustrating the interrelation between the temperature sense and the comfort sense depending on an average skin temperature under heating;

FIG. 4 is a schematic sectional view of a temperature comfort sensing device according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 5a and 5b is a flow chart illustrating a process for manufacturing the temperature comfort sensing device according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a graph illustrating a characteristic of the temperature comfort sensing device of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a graph illustrating a predicted output value (voltage) of the temperature comfort sensing device according to the first embodiment of the present invention, depending on various complex environmental variations;

FIG. 8 is a schematic sectional view of a temperature comfort sensing device according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 9A to 9D are schematic sectional views illustrating a process for manufacturing the temperature comfort sensing device according to the second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a graph illustrating a variation in output value of the temperature comfort sensing device of FIG. 8 depending on an air flow rate;

FIG. 11 is a schematic sectional view of a temperature comfort sensing device according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a schematic plan view illustrating respective patterns of a thin film heater and a temperature sensor in the temperature comfort sensing device of FIG. 11; and

FIG. 13 is a circuit diagram of a module to which the temperature comfort sensing device of FIG. 11 is applied.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Generally, a human being's temperature control mechanism has a similar structure to a type of heat exchanger. The mechanism serves to emit heat occurring in the body through the skin or a respiratory organ to achieve a heat equilibrium, and thus maintain constant the temperature of the core of human body (brain, internal organ). A kind of a biological heat equation may be established between a human being and an ambient thermal environment. The preferred embodiments of the present invention makes it possible to acquire the information about a satisfaction level that a person feels in a thermal environment and about a temperature sense, measuring an imaginary skin temperature in the use of dummy derm type sensor designed by modeling a human body.

FIG. 2 illustrates the interrelation between the temperature sense and the comfort sense depending on the average skin temperature at a low ambient temperature and FIG. 3 illustrates the interrelation between the temperature sense and the comfort sense at a high ambient temperature. Referring to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, it can be known that a human temperature sense or comfort sense is closely related to a human skin temperature.

FIG. 4 depicts a cross sectional structure of a temperature comfort sensing device according to first embodiment of the present invention. The temperature comfort sensing device has a structure in which two diaphragms 1 and 2 composed of membranes with 2 to 3 μm thickness, respectively, adhere to each other through an adhesive 3 to form an air cavity therebetween.

The membrane of the lower diaphragm comprises a substrate (11), a layer (12) heavily doped with Boron ions, a SiO₂ layer (13) formed by a thermal oxidation, a Si₃ N₄ layer (4) formed by a LPCVD and a SiO₂ layer 17. There are also included a thin film heater (15) for heating and a thin film metal temperature sensor (16) for temperature-adjustment.

The membrane of the upper diaphragm comprises a substrate (21), a layer (22) for etching-stop heavily doped with Boron ions, a SiO₂ layer (23), a Si₃ N₄ layer (24), a thermopile (25-1, 25-2), a SiO₂ layers (25, 26), a SiO₂ layer (28), a thin film temperature sensor (27) and a black body (31).

Referring to FIGS. 5a and 5b, there is illustrated a process that these lower and upper diaphragm 1, 2 are manufactured and bonded to each other through an adhesive to produce the temperature comfort sensing device.

For manufacturing the lower diaphragm 1, a heavily doped layer 12 with boron ions is formed as an etch stop layer 12 on P type lower silicon substrate 11 (Step S₁) with a (100) surface. Over the etch stop layer 12 are formed a first oxide film 12 and a first nitride film 14 by a thermal oxidation method and a low pressure CVD (LPCVD) method, respectively, in sequence (Step S₂ and Step S₃). Subsequently, the first nitride film 14 is coated with Ni--Fe alloy, using a spattering method and then patterned to form a thin film heater 15 with heating portions thereon (Step S₅).

A second oxide film 17 (Step S₆) is formed on the whole surface of the film 14. Subsequent to forming contact holes on one side of the film 17, a pad 18 is formed to be connected with the thin film heater 15 (Step S₇). Then, the surface of the second oxide film 17 is coated with an adhesive 3 (Step S₈). The lower silicon substrate 11 is then etched anisotropically in an etylendiamine pyrocathecol water (EPW) mixture solution to form the lower diaphragm 1 (Step S₉).

The lower diaphragm 1, of which the total thickness is 2 to 3 μm is at a mild tension state. The thin film heater 15 of Ni--Fe alloy is manufactured to attain a temperature increase of 100° C. at 12 mW. The thin film heater 15 is controlled by the temperature sensor 16, to maintain 36.5° C. equally to the body temperature.

The upper diaphragm 2 can be manufactured in the same manner as the lower diaphragm 1. A layer heavily doped with boron ions is formed as an etch stop layer 22 on a P type lower silicon substrate 21 with a (100) orientation (Step S₁₀). First oxide film 23 and first nitride film 24 are formed over the etch stop layer 22, using a heat oxidation method and a low pressure CVD (LPCVD) method, respectively (Step S₁₁, S₁₂). Thereafter, a pair of spaced first thermoelectric film patterns 25-1 and 25-2 are formed on the central portion of the film 24 (step S₁₃). Subsequent to forming a second oxide film 26 over the whole upper surface of the resultant structure including the first thermoelectric film patterns 25-1 and 25-2, contact holes are formed on both upper portions of thermoelectric films 25-1 and 25-2, using a photoetching method.

Then, over a second oxide film 26 are formed a pair of spaced thermoelectric film patterns 27-1 and 27-2 so as to have the same width as the first thermoelectric film patterns 25-1 and 25-2. Each of the patterns 27-1 and 27-2 are connected with each corresponding one of the patterns 25-1 and 25-2 through the contact holes.

A pair of thermocouples TC₁ and TC₂ comprises the first thermoelectric film patterns 25-1 and 25-2 and the second thermoelectric film patterns 27-1 and 27-2, respectively.

Two-different metals of Sn/Bi are used for the material of these thermocouples TC₁ and TC₂.

Each of thermocouples TC₁ and TC₂ are structured to have hot junctions and cold junctions. As shown in FIG. 4, the cold junctions are portions at which each of the first thermoelectric film 25-1 and 25-2 is connected with each corresponding one of the second thermoelectric film 27-1 and 27-2 through outer first contact holes H₁ of the upper diaphragm 2. The hot juctions, whereas, are the portions at which each of the first thermoelectric film 25-1 and 25-2 are connected with each corresponding one of the second thermoelectric film 27-1 and 27-2 through inner second contact holes H2 of the upper diaphragm 2. The structure is said to be a thermopile constituted by a plurality of thermocouples of the above-mentioned structures connected with one another.

In accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention, 72 hot junctions are provided for obtaining effective signals without using any separate amplifying circuit. These hot junctions in the thermocouples are connected with one another in series to maximize an output (an electromotive force).

Over the whole upper surface of the resultant structure including the thermocouples is formed a third oxide film 28 (Step S₁₆), one side of which a temperature sensor 29 is then formed (Step S₁₇). Over the whole upper surface of the resultant structure formed is then formed a second nitride film 30. A black body 31 is formed over the second nitride film 30, to overlap with one side of the thermocouples TC₁ and TC₂.

The black body 31 has a radiation rate close to 0.94, the radiation rate of human skin, and may be made of a metal such as Pt, Au or Ag.

After forming the black body 31, the upper silicon substrate 21 is etched anisotropically in an EPW mixture solution to perform the manufacture of the upper diaphragm 2.

The manufactured lower 1 and upper diaphragm 2 are aligned with each other by an aligning apparatus, fixed by a microgripper and then bonded to each other under a firing condition at 270° C. for 10 minutes (Step S₂₁).

Thereafter, a dicing/mounting process (Step S₂₂), a wire bonding/packaging process (Step S₂₃) and a measurement/adjustment process (Step S₂₄) are performed in sequence to manufacture a temperature comfort sensing device.

In the temperature comfort sensing device shown in FIG. 4, the thin film heater 15 generates a heat, depending on the room temperature. The temperature of the thin film heater 15 is sensed by the temperature sensor 16 so that the thin film heater 15 can maintain a temperature identical to the human body temperature of 36.5° C. The thin film heater 15 corresponds to an internal heat exchanging mechanism of a human being. The thermocouples serve to sense a skin temperature condition.

An air cavity 4 defined between the lower 1 and the upper diaphragm 2 accumulates the heat which occurs from the thin film heater 15 depending on the room temperature. The heat accumulated in the air cavity 4 is transferred to the thermocouples connected with one another in series so that the temperature comfort sensing device outputs an electromotive force caused by the transferred heat. Thus, the output voltage from the temperature comfort sensing device reflects a thermal environment in situ PHV values are simply calculated by correcting this output voltage dependent on a room temperature sensed by the temperature sensor 30.

The temperature comfort sensing device of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, that is to say, makes it possible to analogize a correct PMV value for various thermal environments, by performing a temperature correction based on a room temperature sensed by the temperature sensor, a humidity correction by a hybrided humidity sensor, a dress amount correction by correcting a thermal resistance coefficient by the time of year and day and according to a proper program, and a metabolic rate correction by the use of an infrared ray activity sensor or an analogization of daily life pattern.

FIG. 6 shows a graph illustrating a characteristic of the temperature comfort sensing device of the present invention. The graph shows a variation in temperature at the surface of upper diaphragm 2 depending on an air flow rate.

The illustrated conditions are as follows:

No. 1, Room: 30° C. (36%), Air: 30° C. (36%)

No. 2, Room: 30° C. (36%), Air: 40° C. (36%)

No. 3, Room: 30° C. (36%), Air: 30° C. (36%) Cold Wall Temperature: 20° C.

No. 4, Room: 30° C. (36%), Air: 30° C. (36%)

No. 5, Room: 30° C. (36%), Air: 30° C. (36%).

Referring to the condition Nos. 1 add 3, it can be found that the output value of the temperature comfort sensing device depending on the air flow rate is reduced in the case where a cold wall of 20° C. is installed, as compared with the case where no cold wall is installed, even at the same room condition of 30° C. (36%) and the same air condition of 30° C. (36%). That is, the temperature comfort sensing device is highly sensitive to both a slight variation in air flow and a variation in wall temperature at a distance of 30 cm.

FIG. 7 is a graph illustrating a predicted output value (voltage) of the temperature comfort sensing device of the present invention, depending on various complex environmental variations. As apparent from FIG. 7, the output value varies substantially in linear, by a complex environmental variation. As the number of environment varying factors increases, the output value is reduced, as shown in Table 1. In this case, it is possible to analogize an average skin temperature at which a human being feels comfortable. In FIG. 7, such a skin temperature is included in a scope the human temperature sense becomes neutral.

Therefore, the output value of the temperature comfort sensing device of the present invention is the value capable of reflecting thermal environments in an in-situ manner. By partially correcting this value, the PMV value can be simply derived.

FIG. 8 is a schematic sectional view of a temperature comfort sensing device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

The temperature comfort sensing device of this embodiment is different from that of the first embodiment, in that it comprises only the lower diaphragm 1. In the second embodiment, the thermocouple TC is directly formed above the thin film heater 85 of the lower diaphragm 1, as compared with the first embodiment wherein the thermocouple TC is formed on the upper diaphragm 2.

The manufacture of the temperature comfort sensing device with the above-mentioned structure will now be described, in conjunction with FIGS. 9A to 9D.

FIGS. 9A to 9D are schematic sectional views illustrating a process for manufacturing the temperature comfort sensing device according to the second embodiment.

Over a P type lower silicon substrate 81 with a (100) orientation, first, a layer heavily doped with boron ions is formed as an etch stop layer 82, as shown in FIG. 9A. Over the etch stop layer 82, a first oxide film 83 and a first nitride film 84 are sequentially deposited, using the thermal oxidation method and the LPCVD method, respectively.

On a central portion the first nitride film 84 are then formed a thin film heater 85 made of Fe-Ni alloy or Au and a temperature sensor 86 which has spaced sensing portions among the spaced heating portions of the thin film heater 85.

A second nitride film 87 is deposited over the whole upper surface of the resultant structure including the thin film heater 85 and the temperature sensor 86, as shown in FIG. 9B. Beneath the substrate 81, an oxide film (not shown) is also formed to provide an etching window. The resultant structure is then subjected to an anisotropic etching in an anisotropic etch solution. After the anisotropic etching, the oxide film is removed from the structure so that the lower diaphragm 1 including substrate having a recessed structure can be obtained, as shown in FIG. 9B.

On the lower diaphragm 1 are then formed a pair of spaced first thermoelectric film patterns 88-1 and 88-2, as shown in FIG. 9C. Subsequently, a second oxide film 89 is deposited over the whole upper surface of the resultant structure including the first thermoelectric film patterns 88-1 and 88-2. The second oxide film 89 is subjected to a photoetching so that opposite side portions of each of the first thermoelectric film patterns 88-1 and 88-2 have contact holes H₁ and H₂ at their upper surfaces, respectively.

Then, a pair of second thermoelectric film patterns 90-1 and 90-2 are formed over portions of the second oxide film 89 disposed over the first thermoelectric film patterns 88-1 and 88-2, respectively, to have the same width as the first thermoelectric film patterns 88-1 and 88-2. Each of the second thermoelectric film patterns 90-1 and 90-2 is connected with each corresponding one of the first thermoelectric film patterns 88-1 and 88-2 via the contact holes H₁ and H₂. Thus, a pair of thermocouples TC₁ and TC₂ are obtained, each of which has a structure including each corresponding one of the first thermoelectric film patterns 88-1 and 88-2 and each corresponding one of the second thermoelectric film patterns 90-1 and 90-2 connected to each other via the contact holes H₁ and H₂. Also, thermocouples TC₁ and TC₂ are arranged on nitride film 87 and have the same width.

In similar to the first embodiment, the thermocouples TC₁ and TC₂ of the second embodiment are structured to have hot junctions and cold junctions. In accordance with the second embodiment, therefore, 100 thermocouples are provided for obtaining effective signals without using any separate amplifying circuit.

The material of these thermocouples TC₁ and TC₂ may be comprised of a two-different metals such as Bi/Sb, Ni--Cu alloy/Cu or BiTe(N)/BiTe(P). Other two separate materials of polysilicon doped with boron ions and Al may be also used.

Thereafter, a third oxide film 91 is formed over the whole upper surface of the resultant structure including the thermocouples TC₁ and TC₂, as shown in FIG. 9D. A temperature sensor 92 for sensing the room temperature is then formed at one side portion of the third oxide film 91. Over the whole upper surface of the resultant structure is formed a third nitride film 93 upon a central portion of which a black body 94 is then formed. Thus, a temperature comfort sensing device is obtained. The black body 94 serves to increase the heat radiation amount at the surface of the temperature comfort sensing device. The material of the black body 94 is comprised of Au, Pt, Ag, or Ni--Cr alloy.

As shown in FIG. 10, the temperature comfort sensing device fabricated in the above-mentioned manner outputs electrical signals effective to application, depending on a variation in air flow rate, without using any amplifying circuit.

FIG. 11 is a schematic sectional view of a temperature comfort sensing device according to a third embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the temperature comfort sensing device does not comprise the thermocouples TC₁ and TC₂ and the room temperature sensor 92, as different from the second embodiment. The temperature comfort sensing device of the third embodiment comprises only the thin film heater 105 and temperature sensor 106.

For manufacturing this temperature comfort sensing device, first, over a substrate 101 previously subjected to an anisotropic etching are formed an etch stop layer 102, a first oxide film 103 and a first nitride film 104, in this order, as shown in FIG. 11. Thereafter, a thin film heater 105 and a temperature sensor 106 are formed at the central portion of the first nitride film 104. Over the whole upper surface of the resultant structure is formed a second nitride film 107 on which a black body 108 is subsequently formed. Thus, the temperature comfort sensing device is obtained.

The temperature sensor 106 is made of a thin film resistance material.

In the temperature comfort sensing device with the above-mentioned structure, the thin film heater 105 and the temperature sensor 106 have patterns shown in FIG. 12. Since the temperature comfort sensing device of the third embodiment includes no thermopile for connecting a plurality of thermocouples, it is required to provide a separate module for amplifying and linearizing an output signal from the temperature comfort sensing device. Such a module is illustrated in FIG. 13.

In the module shown in FIG. 13, a voltage difference between resistors R₃ and R₄ is amplified by an OP amplifier OP₁. Basically, the module tries to achieve a linearization by an output value fed back to an amplifying circuit for the temperature-measuring resistors. The linearity is adjusted by a variable resistor VR₃.

As apparent from the above description, the preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a temperature comfort sensing device capable of detecting human temperature comfort sensitivity to thermal environments, nearly equal to human beings. Where the temperature comfort sensing device is applied to air conditioning devices, it provides an advantage of efficiently achieving a comfortable air conditioning.

In accordance with the present invention, it is also possible to construct the temperature comfort sensing device by using a single diaphragm and thus achieve a reduction in manufacture cost and an increase in yield. Also, a compactness can be achieved, in the number of sensors can be reduced,

Although the preferred embodiments of the invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as defined in the accompanying claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A temperature comfort sensing device comprising:a first diaphragm including a first substrate having a recessed structure, a first oxide film formed over the first substrate, a first nitride film formed over the first oxide film, a thin film heater formed at a central portion of the first nitride film, the thin film heater having spaced heating portions, a first temperature sensor formed on the first nitride film for controlling a temperature of the thin film heater, the first temperature sensor having spaced sensing portions positioned among the spaced heating portions of the thin film heater, and a second nitride film formed over the first nitride film, covering the thin film heater and the first temperature sensor; a plurality of thermocouples arranged at the second nitride film above the thin film heater and the first temperature sensor and insulated from one another by a second oxide film; a third oxide film formed over the second nitride film and covering the thermocouples; a second temperature sensor formed at one side portion of the third oxide film and adapted to sense a room temperature; a third nitride film formed over the third oxide film and covering the first and second temperature sensors; and a black body formed at a central portion of the third nitride film.
 2. A temperature comfort sensing device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the plurality of thermocouples have the same width and each of the thermocouples comprises a pair of thermoelectric films connected to each other through contact holes.
 3. A temperature comfort sensing device in accordance with claim 2, wherein each of the plurality of thermocouples is made of a metal selected from a group consisting of Bi/Sb, Ni--Cu alloy/Cu and BiTe(N)/BiTe(P).
 4. A temperature comfort sensing device in accordance with claim 3, wherein each of the plurality of thermocouples is made of polysilicon doped with boron ions and Al.
 5. A temperature comfort sensing device in accordance with claim 2, wherein the black body is made of one of Au and Ni--Cr alloy. 